While we celebrate 35 years of continuous publication, it is bittersweet for us that our founder and publisher of 33 years, Bob Ross, is not here to mark this auspicious occasion with us nor to author this editorial commemorating this remarkable achievement. The world was a very different place in 1971 when the Bay Area Reporter first published. While there had been attempts (many secretive and clandestine) to circulate information about activities in the gay and lesbian worlds, such as they were, Bob had a vision of a publication that would not just list events and print community gossip but of a newspaper that would report on issues of particular interest to the LGBT community that were being ignored in mainstream media, that would do so in a responsible and in-depth manner and be held to the highest journalistic standards. Little could he have known the role that the B.A.R. would play in the unfolding of the gay rights movement over the next three-plus decades.
San Francisco has always been a gay mecca. As Oscar Wilde, who performed here in 1889, once wrote, "It's an odd thing, but everyone who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco." Yet the San Francisco of 1971 had not evolved all that much from the corruption and cronyism that had permeated city government in general and the police department in particular for many decades, and that included a distinct bias against gays and lesbians, whose consensual acts were illegal and whose gatherings were discouraged and often raided. Long before Stonewall in New York, San Francisco gays had stood up against the SFPD. On January 1, 1965 the police harassed guests and attempted to prevent a gay community event at California Hall in support of the newly founded Council on Religion and the Homosexual. A number of people were arrested, but more than 500 individuals, many decked out in their finest drag, braved the harassment, crossed the police lines, and said "NO MORE!" California Hall kicked off the gay liberation movement, and was followed in 1966 by Compton's Cafeteria riot where transgender women and hustlers fought back against police harassment. Yet gays continued to be marginalized, and the community had no media presence; no way to communicate effectively among ourselves nor to put out our message to the world at large. The B.A.R. would change all that.
Bob Ross wanted a newspaper to serve the community and to tell it like it was. No more closets. Nothing off limits. Some of the early pioneers that collaborated in that effort are still contributing to the B.A.R . There was a large, but very underground, leather community in San Francisco, and Bob asked Marcus Hernandez to write about it. It was a time when many leather men (and women) didn't want their names or photos in the paper. It was a tough assignment at the time, but today Mister Marcus's "Leather" column is one of the most widely read columns in the American gay press. The gay bar scene of the time was active and vibrant, but still very secretive. Sweet Lips wrote about the supper clubs and the piano bars and the gay social scene in town. The more recent "In the Bars" column continues to be must reading for locals and tourists alike. It was about being who we are and proud of it.
But Bob knew that if the B.A.R. was going to be effective in advocating gay rights in the larger community, it had to be an effective political voice. He wanted a political column, and Harvey Milk wrote the column during several of the early years of the B.A.R. When Harvey left the paper to run for Board of Supervisors, Wayne Friday took up the gauntlet, and "Our Man Friday" ran for over 30 years. He gave the B.A.R ., and the gay community, a powerful voice. No longer would candidates for elected office ignore the influence of the LGBT community. B.A.R. endorsements at election time are highly coveted. No credible candidate in San Francisco dares espouse an antigay agenda. The B.A.R. has played a major role for 35 years in making San Francisco the most LGBT friendly city in the world. We are proud that Mayor Gavin Newsom has declared today "Bay Area Reporter Day" in San Francisco.
For decades, San Francisco has been ground zero in the movement for LGBT equality. In these last decades, we have seen the LGBT community take its rightful place at the political table. We have witnessed first-hand the onslaught and ravages of the AIDS epidemic, a plague that threatened to undo our hard fought progress, yet through which we struggled and emerged stronger as a community. And we had front row seats to watch a remarkable act of courage as a young mayor declared that our relationships are valuable and worthy of recognition, dignity and marriage equality. Terence Kissack of the GLBT Historical Society likes to say that "journalism is the first draft of history." For 35 years the B.A.R . has been there to cover community issues, opine on them, occasionally criticize them, and hopefully offer some suggestions for improvement. The history of our movement is in the pages of the Bay Area Reporter.
I want to thank our faithful readers, our loyal advertisers who make this community resource possible, and the extremely talented and dedicated staff and writers at the B.A.R. who work hard, week in and week out, to produce and deliver a timely, quality newspaper that is both informative and entertaining. We welcome the National Gay Newspapers Guild to San Francisco for its annual meeting as guild members join with our family and friends in wishing the B.A.R. a Happy 35th Birthday! This issue is dedicated to the memory of Bob Ross.